


Long Awaited

by cw151



Series: Clawen Week 2015 [5]
Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Clawen, Clawen Week, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Romance, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 15:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4570185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cw151/pseuds/cw151
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 5 of Clawen Week: Long Awaited. <br/>Claire takes up an offer from Owen. Finally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Awaited

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff once again. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. :-P

Claire stared out of the window at the rain pouring down outside. The water was coming down in what felt like sheets, and the clouds were hanging low over the island, covering its peaks in a nebulous haze. She felt so utterly exhausted – both emotionally and physically. Needless to say, the aftermath of the I-Rex breakout at Jurassic World was just as messy and chaotic as the incident itself. While Masrani Corp and InGen had been able to re-capture the dinosaurs roaming the island, even the Pterosaurs, anyone related to the management of the park was now facing countless lawsuits, audits, inquiries, and of course, never-ending media coverage. It was almost three months after that fateful day by now, and Claire had been working non-stop since then. While she’d always worked a lot even when the park was still running smoothly, she now had absolutely no free time at all. Weekdays and weekends blended with one another, as did day- and nighttime. Claire was actually kind of happy about the latter; ever since the “incident” with the I-Rex, she couldn’t really sleep anyway. She kept waking up, either from nightmares, or because she thought she’d heard something, meaning that she only got about 4-5 hours sleep a night at the most. If the nightmares got too bad, she just went back to work.

 

Unfortunately, the fall-out also meant that she hardly had a chance to spend time with Owen. The first two weeks, Owen had helped to re-capture the dinosaurs, including Blue, and now he was doing his best to continue and strengthen his relationship with the last remaining raptor, and to help other caretakers with their dinosaurs as well. The two of them had grabbed lunch or dinner a few times a week, but hadn’t gotten further than feverish kisses and talking about Jurassic World.

 

There was a soft knock on the door, and shortly afterwards Joshua, her new assistant, stuck his head through the door.

“The storm warning has been upped to a Level 3, so the last ferry’s leaving in 20 minutes. Do you want to go to shore, too?”

Claire blinked a few times to pull herself out of her reverie. It took her a moment to process what Joshua had said, another sign of just how tired she was.

“What day is it?” she asked, rubbing her forehead.

“Friday afternoon,” Joshua immediately replied. If he was confused or amused by the question he didn’t show it. Instead, he just added “August 28th, 4.30 pm.”

Claire walked back over to her desk.

“No, but thank you for letting me know,” she said. “I’ll stay here.”

She hadn’t actually been back to the mainland ever since she got back to Isla Nublar. She had an apartment for work in one of the hotels, and even before Jurassic World had to close to the public, she’d spent most of her nights there instead of in her apartment on the mainland.

Joshua hesitated for a moment.

“You don’t have to stay,” Claire added. “Go home. I can take care of myself.”

Joshua flashed her a relieved grin.

“Thanks! It’s just that they said they didn’t know when the next ferry would go after that as they don’t know how long the storm will last, and it’s my girlfriend’s birthday tomorrow. I can log on from home as soon as I’m on the mainland,” he offered eagerly.

Claire just nodded slightly and didn’t even look at him. Her eyes felt really dry and her eyelids heavy.

“Yeah, that’s fine. See you Monday!” she said as she lazily waved at him to leave. Joshua echoed her greeting and was out of the door in a second.

Claire lowered her head on to her hands that lay folded on her desk.

A Level 3 storm wasn’t too bad. The enclosures were built to withstand up to Level 7. Most of the dinosaurs didn’t even seem to care about storms less than Level 5. Only the Mosasaur tended to get a little restless with lesser storms as her tank was connected directly to the ocean and she could feel the stormy waters.

After what happened, Claire wasn’t taking any chances, though. She sat up and issued a park-wide security alert that instructed the security personnel to closely watch the enclosures and to report any unusual events or developments.

 

Her office had gone perfectly quiet at that point. It seemed that most employees in her building had chosen to take the last ferry for the day. Claire rubbed her eyes, trying not to smudge her make-up. The letters were dancing across the screen in front of her, and while she tried to focus at first, she had to ultimately admit to herself that she was finally pushing her last physical limits. Sighing, she reached for her phone to find a message from Owen.

“You taking the ferry?” he’d asked.

“No, staying here tonight,” Claire texted back. She waited for a few moments, but didn’t get a reply from him. He was probably still busy with Blue or whichever dinosaur he was currently with.

Claire rolled back her desk chair and decided to call it a day. For some reason, she could sleep a little better when it was still daylight outside; maybe she could catch some sleep before it got dark.

As she gathered her things together, she suddenly froze. In her mind, she saw herself entering her empty apartment on the island, its impersonal living and bed room that she never had had the time to personalize. It wasn’t where she wanted to be. She wanted to go to a place that felt like a _home._ A place where she could feel safe and protected. Her apartment on the mainland wasn’t any of that either, though.

As she collected her last items, her eyes fell on to her night kit under her desk. Her night kit was a small bag containing personal hygiene products, some sleepwear, and a change of clothes. She kept a night kit in her office at all times since she’d first been forced to pull an all-nighter at the office, and it’d been incredibly useful for last-minute business trips, too. Now, the night kit suddenly reminded her of something else.

 

In the very beginning, when they’d first returned to the island, Owen had told her that his door was always open for her.

“And I mean that quite literally. I know how strange your home can feel after you’ve been through a traumatic experience like ours. When I got back from service, I often found that a change of scenery helped me sleep much better. So, if you ever need a change of scenery, or some company, just come by my place. Even if I’m not home. I mean it,” he’d said as his blue eyes locked with hers. “Don’t hesitate, just get in the car and come down.”

 

At first, Claire had brushed off his proposal, not wanting to impose on him or to seem weak, but now, the thought of Owen’s bungalow became increasingly appealing. Claire just wanted to sleep, _needed_ to sleep, and to be in a place that didn’t feel like it didn’t actually belong to anyone.

 

In the split of a second, Claire had made her decision. She grabbed her night kit, her purse, and her laptop bag, and left her office with fast steps. The rain was still pouring when she left the parking garage in her Mercedes and headed straight on to the road to Owen’s bungalow. The road was quite muddy, and when Claire finally parked her car next to Owen’s small place ten minutes later, she slipped out of her shoes and stuffed them into her purse before running across the grass to Owen’s front-door barefoot.

 

She was completely soaked when she got there. Stepping as close to the door as she could, Claire knocked and waited, but no-one answered. She tried the door knob, and it seemed that Owen really did mean what he said – the door was unlocked, so she could get in even though he wasn’t there.

 

Claire hadn’t actually been in Owen’s bungalow before as their lunches and dinners had usually taken place at her office. When she stepped through the door, she felt for the light switch, and was immediately greeted by just the kind of sight she’d hoped for.

 

Owen definitely had taken the time to make his place his own. The front door led straight to the living room, which was centered around a comfy couch and arm chair, faced by a medium-sized flat-screen TV. There was a bookshelf in the far corner, mostly containing animal behavior volumes and crime thrillers from what she could see, and the light of different lamps made the entire room glow softly. Memorabilia and photos were strewn all over the place, and there was an old school record player and radio on a small table behind the sofa.

 

Claire slowly stepped further into the apartment and discovered a small dining table in another corner of the living room, accompanied by a tiny open kitchen just behind it. Next to it, a door led to the bedroom, and from there, another door into a small bathroom.

 

She was relieved to see that the entire apartment was quite tidy; while it wasn’t immaculate, it was neat enough for her to feel comfortable. She dropped her purse and laptop bag next to the couch and made her way to the bathroom to change out of her wet clothes and into her pajamas. It felt good to be dry again, and she even found an unused towel to work her hair with a little bit. Her make-up was only slightly smudged, but after some internal debate, Claire decided to remove it entirely. She wasn’t even aware of the sigh that escaped her when her make-up was finally off.

 

Feeling much better, Claire padded back into the bedroom, where she luckily found a hanger lying on the bed. She wouldn’t have wanted to go through Owen’s wardrobe, but her wet dress was in desperate need of a hanger to avoid any further damage. When she was done with hanging up her dress, her eyes fell on to the bed in front of her. It was a queen-size and looked extremely comfortable with its cotton sheets and fluffy pillows. Claire really didn’t want to impose any further, though, and decided that if she was going to sleep at Owen’s place, she’d take the couch.

 

She resolutely stalked back into the living room and fished her phone out of her handbag. There were no missed calls for a change, which was probably due to the fact that most of her employees and the legal staff had left with the last ferry. Claire put her phone on silent, only allowing calls from security to go through with a ring. When she finally raised her eyes back up from her phone, she was looking right through the bedroom door at that comfortable bed again. Maybe she could sleep in there just for a few hours and take the couch later tonight when Owen was back. She’d probably wake up during the night anyway, so it’d be best if she was on the couch then, in case she needed to do some work because she couldn’t go back to sleep.

 

Right now, Claire could feel sleepiness overpowering her, however, as soon she lowered her head on to one of the oh-so-fluffy pillows. As she drifted off, the last thing she noticed was that everything around her smelled like Owen.

 

 

 

Owen was speeding down the road to his bungalow in a borrowed Jurassic World jeep. He’d gotten extremely worried after Claire hadn’t returned any of his messages or calls after her last text saying that she wouldn’t take the ferry. Claire’s phone was always on and near her. Hell, she’d even managed to carry it with her at all times when the I-Rex chased them across the island. At first he’d wondered if he’d done something to piss her off, but more than that, worry was gnawing at him. He’d gone to Claire’s office and to her apartment to find both completely deserted, and he’d also checked the ferry passenger list to see if she’d made a last-minute decision to leave the island after all. When he saw that she hadn’t been on the ferry either, he was close to searching the entire park for her despite the looming storm, but fortunately, he got the glorious idea to call Lowry for help first.

“I don’t know, dude, I can’t just tell you where she is. Protection of privacy and so on. Besides, I only know where her car is, not if she’s there, too,” Lowry had replied in his usual slow, laid-back manner.

Of course, Owen wouldn’t take that for an answer, and had managed to sweet-talk Lowry into telling him the location of Claire’s car in return for a favor that Owen now owed him.

“Her car’s parked next to your bungalow,” Lowry had said slowly, and Owen had quickly thanked him and jumped back into the jeep he’d been using all day to get around the island.

 

He slowly released a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he saw Claire’s car where Lowry said it was. Claire wasn’t inside it, so he hoped that she’d finally taken up his offer to spend some time at his place. While there were the obvious reasons why he wanted her to spend time with him, he’d also gotten increasingly worried about Claire in the last two weeks. The stress was really taking a toll; he could tell that she was ridden with immense guilt, and that she was blaming herself for far more than what she was actually responsible for. She tried to make up for it the only way she knew how: working non-stop. Unfortunately, it seemed that this meant that she didn’t get much sleep, judging by the dark circles under her eyes, and when they went out to lunch or dinner together, she hardly ate anything.

 

Owen stepped through his front door and shook some of the rainwater from his clothes. No Claire. Panic was building inside him again when he noticed her laptop bag and purse on the floor next to the sofa. His eyes quickly swept the rest of the room, and he finally detected a small bulge under the covers of his bed through the bedroom door. Relief washed over him, and he quietly made his way over to her, careful not to make any noise that could scare her.

 

Claire was curled up on her side, her back to the bedroom door, and Owen crept around the bed to kneel next to her. She looked perfectly peaceful and relaxed, her chest rising and falling steadily. Her red hair had become wavy and was falling on to the pillow next to her. A surge of affection hit him, and Owen couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to gently brush her cheek with the knuckle of his index finger. At that, Claire’s eyes fluttered open. It took her a moment to take him in, but when she did, she immediately tried to sit up.

 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll sleep on the couch for the rest of the night,” she said hastily, her voice rough.

Owen gently pressed her back on to the bed with one hand and laced his fingers through hers with his other.

“Ssh, stay where you are, please. No need to apologize. I invited you, remember? Besides, finding you in my bed is … nice.” His eyes glittered mischievously. Claire was much too tired for such flirtations, however. Her eyelids were already dropping again, and while Owen could think of many things he’d want Claire to do in his bed, he was more than happy to see that she was getting some sleep.

He pressed a kiss on to her fingers that were still locked with his.

“Go back to sleep. I gotta go take a shower,” he said quietly. Claire just nodded, her eyes closed.

 

Owen pulled his hand from hers, picked up a white t-shirt and fresh boxers from his chest of drawers, and made his way to the bathroom. He bit back a chuckle when he saw Claire’s toiletries sitting orderly in one corner of the ledge under the mirror, neatly arranged by height, and her office dress suspended from a hanger to dry in the shower. He carefully hung the dress on to the door while he showered, and returned it to its original position afterwards.

 

The hot water felt pleasant against his skin, and Owen scrubbed off the sweat and dirt that his job brought on a daily basis with precise strokes. He could hear the first rolls of thunder over the rushing of his shower, and briefly wondered if the storm would get worse over the weekend. Ultimately, he decided that it wouldn’t be too bad if it did. His place would be fine up to a Level 5, there was plenty of food in his fridge, Claire definitely needed a break, and the two of them some alone-time.

 

Once Owen was done and dressed, he opened the bathroom door and watched Claire for a moment, unsure of what to do next. He was ready for bed, too; while he wasn’t working as much as Claire did, his nights were just as restless, and being tired seemed his constant state of existence these days. What he wanted was to climb into bed next to Claire, to cuddle her a bit, and to fall asleep with her in his arms. He had no idea if Claire wanted that, too, though, and he was determined to give her all the space that she needed. It looked like it was the couch for him then.

 

He was almost past the bed when she stirred a little.

“Where you going?” she asked sleepily.

Owen turned and walked back to her a few steps.

“The living room. I’ll be taking the couch,” he replied softly.

“No,” Claire began to protest as she turned. Her eyes were still half-closed.

Owen was in the middle of shushing her again when she continued.

“Stay,” she murmured drowsily. Owen froze. “Seriously… the bed is big enough…” Claire continued, her words slightly slurred.

Owen didn’t need much time to decide.

“Ok,” he said as he slipped under the covers next to her and laid down on to his back. He was just debating if he should move further away from her to make sure she didn’t feel uncomfortable when Claire turned over and nestled up to him, her right arm sneaking across his stomach and her legs tangling with his.

 

So much about making her uncomfortable. Owen responded by pulling her closer to him and gently caressing her back. Claire let out a small hum, nuzzled his chest, and took a deep breath as if she tried to breathe him in. Owen was glad that he’d just showered.

“Finally,” she sighed contentedly. “I missed you.”

Owen pressed a kiss to her forehead as another thunder rolled outside and the hiss of the rain intensified.

“I missed you, too,” he whispered and closed his eyes to let sleep claim him.  

Everything felt right.

 

 


End file.
